Yes, there is a lot to be argued, debated, addressed. And this moment, as inevitable as it has sometimes seemed, can still, in the end, prove transformational, if not redemptive for our city. Changes are necessary and voices need to be heard. All of that is true and all of that is still possible, despite what is now loose in the streets.

But now — in this moment — the anger and the selfishness and the brutality of those claiming the right to violence in Freddie Gray’s name needs to cease. There was real power and potential in the peaceful protests that spoke in Mr. Gray’s name initially, and there was real unity at his homegoing today. But this, now, in the streets, is an affront to that man’s memory and a dimunition of the absolute moral lesson that underlies his unnecessary death.

If you can’t seek redress and demand reform without a brick in your hand, you risk losing this moment for all of us in Baltimore. Turn around. Go home. Please

How are people supposed to get anything? what’s wrong with fighting back? You decry the destruction of their neighborhood. But doing nothing, looking to politicians and business leaders to solve their problems for them is a joke. It boils down to looking to the very same people for a solution who have been destroying jobs, education, housing in their greedy search for ever greater profits. As for violence: how many people do the cops kill every year, people who are unarmed. How many lives are destroyed by throwing people in prison? Yet, you condemn the people who are trying to fight against that. Very, very sad.